Well packers



Feb. 22, 1966 J. c. MGCONNELL WELL PACKERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb.5, 1965 INVENTOR.

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United States Patent 3,236,531 WELL PACKERS James C. McConnell, P.O. Box1236, Seymour, Tex. Filed Feb. 5, 1963, Ser. No. 256,323 1 Claim. (Cl.277116.4)

This invention relates to improvements in casing packers and moreparticularly to casing packers to be attached to the lower end of acasing pump or therebelow, to enable a seal to be formed between a wellcasing and a tubular member on which the packer is mounted to enable thecasing pump to be used in a well without having to use tubing from thecasing pump to the top of the well.

Various packers have been proposed heretofore to form such a seal, butthese, for the most part, were combined with expansible slip means toanchor the packer within the wall of the casing and did not hold thecasing pump at a fixed level within the well casing.

The present invention provides for maintaining the elastomer packerelement in a retracted position while the packer is being run into thecasing, preparatory to the sealing thereof, and while it is beingremoved therefrom.

An object of this invention is to provide a well packer for use in abore hole of a well, which packer may be readily run into the bore holeand held against engagement with the wall of the well while the packeris being run thereinto, and which may be readily manipulated to allowthe packer to be expanded into fluid tight relation with the wall of thewell after it is set to the desired depth in the bore hole of a well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a well packer which may bereadily manipulated to enable the removal thereof from the bore hole ofthe Well without allowing the elastomer packer element to engage thewall of the well in sealing relation, even with high pressure fluidmoving upward through the well casing and through the packer while thepacker is being removed.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a casing packerwhich will readily seat on an anchor which extends to the bottom of thebore hole of the well, thereby maintaining the packer at a fixed levelwith respect to the bore hole of the well.

Another object of the invention is to provide a well packer which issimple in construction, easy to operate, low in the cost of manufacture,and is relatively free from operational difficulties.

With these objects in mind, and others which will become manifest as thedescription proceeds, reference is to be had to the accompanyingdrawings in which like reference characters designate like parts in theseveral views thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view through a cased bore hole of awell, with parts being shown in elevation and with parts being shown asshortened, and with parts broken away to bring out the details ofconstruction;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1, looking inthe direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal, sectional View through the wellpacker, with the packer being shown in position ready to expand theelastomer element thereof;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3, looking inthe direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 55 of FIG. 3, looking inthe direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 66 of FIG. 3, looking inthe direction indicated by the arrows;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the packer shown apart from the casingpump and the well casing, the packer being shown in extended relation,as it would appear while being run into the well without fluid orpressure 3,236,531 Patented Feb. 22, 1966 reacting thereagainst, with aportion being broken away and with a portion being shown in section toshow the details of construction;

FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7, but showing the packer being runinto the well in which fluid or pressure is present in the well;

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 7, but showing one portion of thepacker rotated with respect to the position shown in FIG. 7, preparatoryto seating the packer within the well casing; and

FIG. 10 illustrates the packer in the seated position thereof.

With more detailed reference to the drawings, the numeral 1 designatesgenerally a well casing in the bore hole of a well, which well casingusually has perforations 2 therein, near the bottom thereof, to permitfluid to flow from strata 4 thereinto. The present packer is shown tohave a perforate anchor 6 on the lower end thereof, which perforationsare at spaced intervals, as indicated at 8. The anchor 6 is preferablyclosed at the lower end by a bull plug 10, which seats on the bottom 12of the well. A coupling 14, which may be a reducing fitting, isconnected to the perforate anchor 6 and to the lower end of a sleeve 16of a packer unit, designated generally by the numeral 18. The sleeve 16is screw threaded on each end, as indicated respectively at 20 and 22,which enables a reducing fitting 14 to be attachably secured thereto atthe lower end of the sleeve, and enables a metallic, threaded collar 24to be secured to the threads 22 at the upper end of the sleeve 16.

A shaped, hollow, elastomer packer member 26 is bonded or vulcanized tothe upper end of the threaded metallic collar 24, and is so positionedas to receive a conical portion 28 of expander member 30 within aconical recess 27 formed in elastomer packer member 26. The conicalexpander member 30 is internally threaded, as indicated at 32, toreceive a screw threaded nipple or plunger 34, which nipple or tubularplunger extends into a reciprocating tubular member 37 of casing pump36. A conventional casing pump 36 such as shown in vol. 2, pages2872-2873, of the 1964-65 Composite Catalog of Oil Field Equipment andServices, published by Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas, isillustrative of the pump used, or the pump as shown in Patent No.1,698,797 to C. P. Howe, which pump 36 is threaded at the lower endthereof and has the usual check or standing valves (not shown) therein,which reciprocating tubular member 37 is secured to a sucker rod 38,which sucker rod extends to the surface of the well to be actuated by apump jack or the like. The sucker rod 38 also forms an actuating meansto set the packer 18 in the casing 1 and to remove the packer from thecasing, so by rotating the sucker rod 38 in a conventional manner, as bya pipe wrench, the tubular member 37, the plunger 34 and the secondsleeve 44, attached to the plunger 34 by an expander member 30, willcause the second sleeve 44 attached thereto to rotate in a conventionalmanner, either to move bolts 48 into longitudinal alignment with slots52 or into alignment with slots 50, which enables the packer to be setor removed at will. The casing pump 36 is of conventional design andpumps fluid upward therethrough and out through perforate cage 40.

The casing pump 36 may either be of the reciprocating piston type, whichpumps on the upward stroke, or of the type whereby a stationary,upstanding plunger 34 is within the outer tubular member 37, whichtubular member reciprocates, and the pump pumps on the downward stroke,either type pump would be of conventional design.

The casing pump 36 has the sucker or pump rod 38 connected to aperforate cage 40, which cage is secured to the upper end of pump 36,and which cage is screw threaded at the upper end thereof to threadablyreceive the threaded connection of sucker rod 38, which arrangementenables the reciprocation of the tubular member 37 of the pump 36-relative to the plunger 34 thereof. The plunger 34 is attached to thehollow conical expander member 30 so as to draw the fluid being pumpedin through perforations 8 and upward through perforate anchor 6 into thelower end of tubular sleeve 16, thence upward through the packer,designated generally at 18, and through pipe 34 into the lower end ofthe casing pump 36.

The expander member 30 is internally screw threaded at the lower endthereof, as indicated at 31, and has an axial passage 31a therethrough.A second sleeve 44 is screw threaded into screw threads at the lower endof expander member 30, which sleeve 44 extends downward into the firstsleeve 16, The sleeve 44 is apertured at 46, immediately below theexpander member 30, to form a drain when the expander member 30 isunseated with respect to elastomer packer member 26.

The sleeve 44 has screw threaded apertures intermediate the lengththereof to threadably receive bolts 48, which bolts form abutments, aswill best be seen in FIGS. 3 and 5. It is to he noted from FIG. 3, thatthe outer sleeve 16 is relatively thin as compared to the expandermember 30. The heads of the bolts 48 extend outward for slidingengagement with parallel, longitudinal slots 50 and 52, which are formedwithin tubular sleeve 16, and for limited rotary movement with respectto tubular sleeve 16. The slots 50 each have the upper ends thereofrecessed, as indicated at 54 to form abutments to enable the heads ofbolts 48 to fit therein to prevent accidental rotation of the sleevesrelative to each other, While going into the well or being removed fromthe well. A similar indentation 56 is provided in the lower end of eachslot 52 to prevent accidental turning when the elastomer packer member26 is forced upward, by gas or fluid pressure, while the device iscoming out of the hole.

The respective pairs of parallel, longitudinal slots are spaced apartarcuately more than onehalf the width of the slots, and each pair oflongitudinal slots 5052 is connected by a lateral slot 58, which enablesthe sleeve 44 to be rotated relative to sleeve 16 in order to move thebolts 48 from slots 50 into slots 52', as indicated in FIGS. 8 and 9.When the heads of bolts 48 are moved into slots 52, the bolts 48 may belowered therealong until expander member 30 engages and expandselastomer packer member 26.v The expansion of the packer member 26 isaccomplished by the anchor 6 being seated on the bottom of the well tosupport the packer and the non-reciprocating portion of the casing pump,which will relieve weight from bolts 48, whereupon, the rods 38 may beraised, which, in turn, will raise expander member 30 and sleeve 44until the heads of bolts 48' are out of recesses 56, whereupon, in thepresent instance, the rods may be turned clock-wise, which will causethe heads of the bolts to pass through the lateral slots 58 between theparallel, longitudinal slots 50 and 52, and with the heads of the boltsin position as shown in FIG. 9, the casing pump 36 may be lowered, theweight of which casing pump will cause expander member 30 to wedginglyengage elastomer packer member 26 to move the peripheral edge of theelastomer packer member 26 into seating relation with the inner diameterof well casing 1. Since the weight of the casing pump is on the packer,and the packer is supported by an anchor which extends to the bottom 12of the well, the rods 38 may be moved upward to locate the plunger ofthe casing pump 36 in the correct relation within the length of thecylinder 37, whereupon, the rods may be connected to the conventionalpump jack and-reciprocated to pump oil, water or the like from the earthstrata 4.

To remove the casing pump 36 from the well, the sucker rods 38 are movedupward until the expander member 30 is out of engagement with elastomerpacker element 26, whereupon, the fluid, such as water, oil, or gas,will pass through hole 46 into sleeve 44, and when the pressure hasbecome equalized, the rods and the casing pump 36 may be moved upward,if there is no pressure below the elastomer packer member 26.

If pressure, below the packer member 26, is present, the rods are turnedcounter-clockwise while the heads of the bolts 48 are opposite lateralslots 58', which will move the heads of the bolts from the position asshown in FIG. 9 to the position shown in FIG. 8, whereupon, an upwardpull on the rods 38 will move the heads of the bolts 48 into theposition as shown in FIG. 7, which will prevent the packer member 26 andthe expander member 30 from coming into contact relation, therebyclosing the well casing, and also permits the flow of fluid through thepacker member 26.

Having thus clearly shown and described the invention, what is claimedas new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

A well packer for use in combination with a pump in a well casing, whichwell packer comprises;

(a) an inner sleeve,

(b) a thin outer sleeve fitted around said inner sleeve in relativesliding relation with respect thereto,

(c) said sleeve having pairs of adjacent, parallel, longitudinal slotsformed therein in diametrically opposed positions,

(1) adjacent slots of each pair of slots being spaced apart arcuately adistance of at least the width of one of said slots,

(2) each pair of adjacent longitudinal slots comprising a long slot anda comparatively short slot,

(d) said outer sleeve having a lateral slot formed therein between theadjacent slots of each pair of slots, which respective lateral slotsinterconnect said longitudinal, adjacent slots of each pair of slotsintermediate the length thereof,

(e) diametrically positioned abutments secured exteriorly to said innersleeve and being of a length to extend through like slots in each pairof diametrically opposed slots formed in said outer sleeve,

(f) tubular means, including a pump and pump rod, connected to saidinner sleeve for moving said inner sleeve longitudinally with respect tosaid outer sleeve and for rotating said inner sleeve with respect tosaid outer sleeve within the limits defined by said slots and saidabutments,

(g) an elastomer packer member, having a conical recess formed therein,secured to the upper end of said outer sleeve,

(h) a conical packer expander member secured to the upper end of saidinner sleeve for complementary seating relation within the conicalrecess of said elastomer packer member, and

(i) an anchor pipe secured to the lower end of said outer sleeve, toextend therebelow, for maintaining said well packer a spaced distanceabove the bottom of the well, upon the lowerend of said anchor pipeengaging the bottom of the well.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 249,228 11/1881Dower 166-199 X 747,321 12/1903 Heeter 166-199 1,524,158 l/1925 Steen166-199 2,223,099 11/1940 Fisher 166l99 X 2,375,972 5/1945 Wood et al.166-199 X 2,496,546 2/1950 Lamb 166-202 X CHARLES'E. QCONNELL, PrimaryExaminer;

